Liturgical Hints & Ideas

During Ordinary Time in Year B we will highlight passages from the new General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM) that pertain to music during the liturgy.
The GIRM contains rubrics and instructions (some of them new) for the celebration of the Mass.
The first section below is a direct quote from the English translation of the document.
The second section is a commentary on the passage.

Structure, Elements and Parts of the Mass: Communion (GIRM #86)

While the Priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion Chant is begun, its purpose being to express the spiritual union of the communicants by means of the unity of their voices, to show gladness of heart, and to bring out more clearly the "communitarian" character of the procession to receive the Eucharist.
The singing is prolonged for as long as the Sacrament is being administered to the faithful.
But the communion song should be ended in good time whenever there is to be a hymn after communion.

Care must be taken that singers, too, can receive Communion with ease.

Commentary:
Communion time is always very difficult to program musically.
Ideally, an antiphon/verse-type song should begin as soon as the celebrant receives communion.
It should continue during the procession of the faithful to receive communion.
If there is a "hymn after communion" (itself an awkward piece), the processional music should be ended "in good time" so these two songs don't back one against the other.
I can find no benefit in singing a Communion Hymn followed immediately by a "Meditation" Hymn.
This is atypical of Roman liturgy, where two like things don't follow one another (think readings separated by music, Eucharistic Prayer differentiated by posture).

Unless one uses the antiphon/verse style, it is hard to start a congregational hymn at the beginning of communion — people are not focused on a hymnal or liturgy sheet.
The difficulty found in trying to wedge a standard "hymn" structure into this moment is further evidence of Roman rite's wisdom in calling for the Communion Antiphon (as found in the Roman Missal or Graduale Romanum).
All the more reason to look seriously at the Proper, the ultimate "Communion Chant."